Postmen Are Britain's Fittest Workers, According To New Research From Virgin Active.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

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A day working as a postman or courier burns almost 1,500 calories and is equivalent to running for almost two hours on a treadmill. Also in the top five fittest workers are farmers, nurses, caterers and retail staff, who all burn over 1,000 calories in a shift.

At the opposite end of the scale are call centre staff, who burn just 804 calories in a working day.


The research also found that Brits spend over half of their working day sitting down – a total of 24 hours and 24 minutes a week sitting on a chair. And one in 10 inactive workers stay sat down for 100% of their working day.

“It’s alarming how many Brits sit for long periods of time at work,” Andy Birch, head of exercise and wellbeing at Virgin Active, said. “Compared to sitting, standing typically burns around 50 calories an hour more.”


“This calorie difference doesn’t sound much but it quickly adds up over time. Five hours a day on your feet equals 250 calories a day and 1,250 a week. Over the course of a working year that’s around 60,000 calories burnt which in activity levels is like running over ten marathons.”

Virgin Active are making simple suggestions to increase activeness at work – from power walking to speak to a colleague rather than email to standing on one leg while you make the tea to practising squats at the photocopier.

Although, the research did find that a third of the UK workforce need to walk for work every day as part of their jobs – and of this third, the average time spent on their feet is nearly three hours. Hospitality staff clock up the most steps at work, spending four and a half hours walking in the workplace. And although many workers spend the majority of their time at work sitting down, three quarters say that they always take the stairs instead of using the lift, burning up to 90 calories per climb.

[noggin1969]

Fit to drop

[Bernardson]

My aching plates

[hans solo]

wtl last week was how WE can be more productive and faster at our jobs
went down well

[Mr Rush]

Must be all those Virgin Media letters every week (yeah, I know they're only tenuously linked by brand name)

[ted_e_bear]

They obviously haven't seen our 3 phg's !

[daveyeff]

most gaffers burn about 13 calories per shift.